Stickling Point

lit-lorn-strait

Dear Geist,
I always speak up in my online writing workshop when someone talks about “flushing out” a scene or a character. It’s fleshing out, people! But they keep doing it and now they’re getting nasty. Everyone respects Geist (our instructor gets us free digital copies via the Geist in the Classroom program), so please give me the Geist thumbs-up on flesh/flush. I need some backup.
—Happy Stickler, Victoria
Dear Happy,
Technically you’re right. To flesh out is to add substance – flesh to bone, for example. To flush out is to clean something out with water or to force something out into the open. But is your campaign worth alienating your writing community? Choose your battles.
—The Editors